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Πέμπτη, 2 Δεκεμβρίου 2010

Zbigniew Brzezinski: Who is Really Leaking to Wikileaks?

Zbigniew Brzezinski doesn't think all the leaked information coming out of Wikileaks is a result of Army PFC Bradley Manning, as a matter of fact he suspects a foreign intelligence service may be providing the more embarrassing leaks. In a PBS interview with Judy Woodruff, ZB lays out his thinking:

JUDY WOODRUFF: Dr. Brzezinski, what do you think the fallout is going to be?

ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI, former adviser, U.S. National Security: ...The real issue is, who is feeding Wikipedia on this issue -- Wiki -- Wiki -- WikiLeaks on this issue? They're getting a lot of information which seems trivial, inconsequential, but some of it seems surprisingly pointed.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, what are you referring to?

ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: Well, for example, there are references to a report by our officials that some Chinese leaders favor a reunified Korea under South Korea. This is clearly designed to embarrass the Chinese and our relationship with them. The very pointed references to Arab leaders could have as their objective undermining their political credibility at home, because this kind of public identification of their hostility towards Iran could actually play against them at home...

JUDY WOODRUFF: And what is it -- what are you worried about with regard to the knowledge that...

ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: It's not a question of worry. It's, rather, a question of whether WikiLeaks are being manipulated by interested parties that want to either complicate our relationship with other governments or want to undermine some governments, because some of these items that are being emphasized and have surfaced are very pointed.And I wonder whether, in fact, there aren't some operations internationally, intelligence services, that are feeding stuff to WikiLeaks, because it is a unique opportunity to embarrass us, to embarrass our position, but also to undermine our relations with particular governments.For example, leaving aside the personal gossip about Sarkozy or Berlusconi or Putin, the business about the Turks is clearly calculated in terms of its potential impact on disrupting the American-Turkish relationship.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Just criticizing the people around...

ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: And the top leaders, Erdogan and Davutoglu and so forth, are using some really, really, very sharp language.JUDY WOODRUFF: But this is 250 -- it's a quarter-of-a-million documents.ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: Precisely.

JUDY WOODRUFF: How easy would it be to seed this to make sure that it was slanted a certain way?

ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: Seeding -- seeding it is very easy.

I have no doubt that WikiLeaks is getting a lot of the stuff from sort of relatively unimportant sources, like the one that perhaps is identified on the air. But it may be getting stuff at the same time from interested intelligence parties who want to manipulate the process and achieve certain very specific objectives. It should be noted that while ZB suspects foreign elements behind some of the leaks, it could very well be internal U.S. elements unhappy with the direction the President is taking things. Wikileaks may have both domestic and foreign sources. There could very well be more than one playing this game.

King’s support for terrorism doesn’t stop there, however: he is also a fervent booster of the “Real IRA,” an Irish Republican terrorist organization that plants bombs andassassinates its enemies. As a supporter of Irish Northern Aid, King lent his name and prestige to a group that was buying weapons for the “Real” IRA, which were used to murder civilians as well as British government officials and police.

If anyone should be accused of support for terrorism – material support – it’s King, and the only reason he’s not been charged is because there are two sets of laws in this country, one for us lowly plebs, who might travel to, say, Colombia, or Palestine, and meet with someone our government doesn’t approve of, and another set of laws for the political class, the members of which can do anything [.pdf] they damn well please as long as they don’t inconvenience higher-ups in the DC food chain.

Speaking of the political class, listen to William Kristol, the little Lenin of the neocons, as he dispenses advice to the Obama-ites on how to deal with WikiLeaks:

“From now on, a policy of no comment about anything in any of these documents should be the absolute rule. No apologies, no complaints, no explanations, no excuses. No present or former government official should deign to discuss anything in these documents. No one in the executive branch should confirm or deny the accuracy of any document. No one should hasten to reassure any foreign leader of anything, or seek to put any cable in context. No one in Congress should cite anything in these documents to make a point about any issue. The entire American government and political class should simply go about its important foreign policy business, and treat these leaks as beneath contempt, and beneath comment.”

Kristol and his ilk don’t believe they’re answerable to anyone but other members of the “political class” – because, don’t you know, they’re above reproach, or criticism of any kind. Sniffy disdain is the only possible response to any attempt to question their royal prerogatives. These Bourbons have learned nothing in the past decade, during which their failed policies have visited disaster on American foreign policy and the peoples of the Middle East – and, what’s more, they don’t care to learn anything. They would rather close their eyes and ears, and just “go about their important foreign policy business,” wreaking murder and mayhem in their wake, while the rest of the world marvels at the enormity of their crimes, and the small-mindedness of the chief criminals.

Kristol’s prescription perfectly expresses the neoconservative view of power and its proper exercise: the common people who pay for our overseas empire have no right to know about, let alone criticize, our overseas shenanigans. Their role is simply to subsidize the whole mess, and let their betters (i.e. Kristol, various Kaganfamilymembers, and the laptop bombardiers at AEI and Heritage) determine policy. How dare the hoi polloi interfere!

This is a perfectly natural impulse on the part of the political class, of which Kristol is an exemplar: secrecy is essential to the success of their most important scamsoperations, and always has been. That’s where the tremendous resistance on the part of the Establishment to Ron Paul’s campaign to audit the Federal Reserve is coming from. If the American people knew, in detail, what scams were robbing them blind, and what murderous plots were being carried out in their name, they’d rebel – and we can’t have that!

Which brings to mind a particular item from the WikiLeaks document release,a cable from Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, a small Central Asian nation where the US had to make a major effort to keep Manas air force base from being dismantled by the local authorities, who were demanding more “foreign aid” as the price to keep it open. Meeting with the Chinese ambassador, our own envoy “mentioned that Kyrgyz officials had told her that China had offered a $3 billion financial package to close Manas Air Base and asked for the Ambassador’s reaction to such an allegation.”

According to this self-serving and prolix missive, Ambassador Zhang was “visibly flustered,” and even “temporarily lost the ability to speak Russian and began spluttering in Chinese to the silent aide diligently taking notes right behind him.” Our ambassador continues:

“Composing himself, Zhang inquired if maybe the Kyrgyz had meant the trade turnover between the two countries, which he claimed was about $3 billion a year. When disabused of that notion, Zhang went on at length to explain that China could not afford a $3 billion loan and aid package. ‘It would take $3 from every Chinese person” to pay for it. If our people found out, there’d be a revolution,’ he said. ‘We have 200 million people unemployed” because of the downturn in exports, he said, and millions of disabled and others who need help from the government.’”

“If our people found out, there’d be a revolution” – and that is precisely the point. That’s why Kristol and the war-bots are frothing at the mouth over WikiLeaks’ latest coup. Because if the American people really understood what was being donein their name, and at their expense, they’d rise up as one and deliver one thumping kick in the ass to the entire political class. There would indeed be a revolution – which is why WikiLeaks is being excoriated by both the right and and the left, by Clare McCaskill (on CNN the other day) as well the Fox News types.